(4.5 stars) Celeste Ng has set an intriguing precedent with her first two novels, 2014’s Everything I Never Told You and this new book, the UK release of which was brought forward by two months after its blockbuster success in the USA. The former opens “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” The latter starts “Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.” From the first lines of each novel, then, we know the basics of what happens: Ng doesn’t write mysteries in the generic sense. She doesn’t want us puzzling over whodunit; instead, we need to ask why, examining motivations and the context of family secrets.

Little Fires Everywhere opens in the summer of 1997 in the seemingly idyllic planned community of Shaker Heights, Ohio: “in their beautiful, perfectly ordered city, […] everyone got along and everyone followed the rules and everything had to be beautiful and perfect on the outside, no matter what mess lay within.” That strict atmosphere will take some getting used to for single mother Mia Warren, a bohemian artist who has just moved into town with her fifteen-year-old daughter, Pearl. They’ve been nomads for Pearl’s whole life, but Mia promises that they’ll settle down in Shaker Heights for a while.

Mia and Pearl rent a duplex owned by Elena Richardson, a third-generation Shaker resident, local reporter and do-gooder, and mother of four stair-step teens. Pearl is fascinated by the Richardson kids, quickly developing an admiration of confident Lexie, a crush on handsome Trip, and a jokey friendship with Moody. Izzy, the youngest, is a wild card, but in her turn becomes enraptured with Mia and offers to be her photography assistant. Mia can’t make a living just from her art, so takes the occasional shift in a Chinese restaurant and also starts cleaning the Richardsons’ palatial home in exchange for the monthly rent.

The novel’s central conflict involves a thorny custody case: Mia’s colleague at the restaurant, Bebe Chow, was in desperate straits and abandoned her infant daughter, May Ling, at a fire station in the dead of winter. The baby was placed with the Richardsons’ dear friends and neighbors, the McCulloughs, who yearn for a child and have suffered multiple miscarriages. Now Bebe has gotten her life together and wants her daughter back. Who wouldn’t want a child to grow up in the comfort of Shaker Heights? But who would take a child away from its mother and ethnic identity? The whole community takes sides, and the ideological division is particularly clear between Mia and Mrs. Richardson (as she’s generally known here).

For all that Shaker Heights claims to be colorblind, race and class issues have been hiding under the surface and quickly come to the forefront. Mrs. Richardson’s journalistic snooping and Mia’s warm words – she seems to have a real knack for seeing into people’s hearts – are the two driving forces behind the plot, as various characters decide to take matters into their own hands and make their own vision of right and wrong a reality. Fire is a potent, recurring symbol of passion and protest: “Did you have to burn down the old to make way for the new?” Whether they follow the rules or rebel, every character in this novel is well-rounded and believable: Ng presents no clear villains and no easy answers.

There are perhaps a few too many coincidences, and a few metaphors I didn’t love, but I was impressed at how multi-layered this story is; it’s not the simple ethical fable it might at first appear. There are so many different shards to its mosaic of motherhood: adoption, surrogacy, pregnancy, abortion; estrangement, irritation, longing, pride. “It came, over and over, down to this: What made someone a mother? Was it biology alone, or was it love?” Ng asks. I also loved the late-1990s setting. It’s a time period you don’t often encounter in contemporary fiction, and Ng brings to life the ambiance of my high school years in a way I found convincing: the Clinton controversy, Titanic, the radio hits playing at parties, and so on.

Each and every character earns our sympathy here – a real triumph of characterization, housed in a tightly plotted and beautifully written novel you’ll race through. This may particularly appeal to readers of Curtis Sittenfeld, Pamela Erens and Lauren Groff, but I’d recommend it to any literary fiction reader. One of the best novels of the year.

Shaker Heights, a picture perfect town where everything is planned and the residents  must follow every rule to keep the town so perfect. Elena Richardson and her family seem to be the perfect residents, that is until Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl lease the Richardson rental house. Secrets are then revealed and the Richardson family may not be quite as perfect as first seemed.
Elena and Mia were two completely different characters, Elena is a journalist, married to a lawyer with four children. She’s the perfect Shaker Heights resident with ambitions for her children, wealth and  beautiful home. Mia is a single mother and an artist who doesn’t settle in one place long. Herself and her daughter Pearl are for ever on the move but Mia has promised that this time they will set down some roots and Pearl easily forms a friendship with the Richardson children.
The story started off with a fantastic opening then it seemed to slow down, I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to really get into the story but it slowly builds up and I found I was quite hooked. We get to see the story from most of the characters perspective and this was done beautifully. It really showed that you can’t judge a book by its cover and not everyone may be as perfect as they come across.
Little Fires Everywhere really is a thought-provoking read filled with many different subjects covered, adoption, race and family dynamics to name a few. It was an emotional read that also had some suspense. It really is an all-rounder that I think will appeal to many readers.
Wonderfully written, Little Fires Everywhere is a story where you really get to know the characters so it feels like more than a story and I couldn’t help feeling emotionally involved. It’s a story that will stay with me for a long time and one I will definitely be recommending.

Shaker Heights is a strange little town. Everyone must abide by lots of rules. The place is picture-perfect and not one thing must be out of place, from their refuse collection, to how high the front lawns are allowed to grow. It reminded me of a film (title I can’t remember), where there was a little town in the USA in which everything and everyone ran like clockwork, and everything was immaculate all the time, including the people.

The upper-class Richardson family, including their four children Lexie, Trip, Moody and Izzy are very much at the heart of Shaker Heights. Mrs Richardson wants to be seen as doing her bit for those less fortunate than herself, so she offers out her rented accommodation at much cheaper rates than it is worth to those in need, such as Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl.

Mia is an artist who has moved from place to place but has decided to try and settle down for her daughter. Mia and Pearl are not like the town folk of Shaker Heights. They are not used to rules and regulations over every minor thing, thus meaning that the Richardson children are drawn to them, as they realise that there is more to life than what they have been taught.

Little Fires Everywhere is exquisitely written and touches your heart. It is one of those books that makes you stop and think, not only about your own life, but of those around you too. It opens with the ending, so you have this unusual knowledge of knowing where the story is taking you, you just don’t know how it is going to get you there.

Celeste NG has a beautiful writing style, one that swept me into the story and held me captivated until the very end. I will admit to struggling a little at the start though. The book opens with the burning down of the Richardson’s home and the youngest Richardson daughter, Izzy, being blamed. It then jumps back a few months in time. It was those first couple of chapters when Celeste took us back that I had to persevere with, and I’m certainly glad that I did.

The book has quite a few secondary plots weaving themselves in and out of the main one. So much is happening all the time that you are kept on your toes. I loved the family dynamics, and the friendships that the children formed with one another. Rich, poor, it didn’t matter as much to the children as it did to the adults.

This is one of those books that long after you have read the final word, and all the puzzles have been solved, it still stays with you. It is one that I will treasure, and look forward to reading again in the future.

I utterly loved this book - so perfect for fans of suburban life reads. I've been telling everyone I meet about it. I loved reading about the interaction between Mia & Pearl and the Richardson family. One of my favourite parts was reading about the relationships, similarities and differences between the 4 Richardson siblings. Not normally a fan of location descriptions but was hooked by hearing about Shaker Heights. Highly recommended.

This is the story of small town, Shaker Heights, Cleveland. A town with a picture perfect image. The lawns are all beautifully manicured, the houses aesthetically pleasing, the citizens regimented in their conformity, a place and a role for everything.

The Richardson family conform, headed up by mother Elena Richardson, born and raised in Shaker Heights, now a local journalist with three children, and a lawyer husband.

Their life is an ordered one, lived by the rules of Shaker Heights and their parents but all that changes with the arrival of Mia and her daughter Pearl.  Mia, an artist, and her daughter Pearl have lived a nomadic life, until Mia decides that Pearl needs friends and stability, and rents out the Richardson's apartment.

As the families lives become intertwined, the order of their lives changes. There are no longer clear demarcations between what is right and wrong, and when family friends of the Richardson's attempt to adopt an abandoned Chinese baby, a custody battle ensues, that divides the families and the community of Shaker Heights.

Add in a past that Mia would love to leave behind and hide from her daughter and Elena Richardson's persistent pursuit to discover the truth, and you have one hell of a novel.

The characters are just brilliant.

Elena Richardson is the perfect mother, and wife, her life ordered, and contained. I found her to be quite irritating, with her holier than though attitude, and her own self importance. As the story unravels then so does Elena as she is forced to accept that perhaps not everything can be planned or work out as we want or expect.

Mia, is a free spirit, hugely protective of her daughter, yet easy going and broad minded, a natural magnet to the younger Richardson daughter, Izzy. I loved the hint of mystery surrounding Mia's past as well as her determination to succeed not only as an artist and as a mother.

Izzy is the rebellious one, the odd one out, hated by her siblings and treated harshly by her mother.  You couldn't help but feel sorry for Izzy, and her unwillingness to conform and follow the clearly defined rules in the family. The easy going free spirited Mia is a magnet to which Izzy becomes attracted, somehow who accepts her for who she is, and encourages her to be whom she wants to be.

Tripp is your typical high school jock, well liked and popular with the girls. He appears as a slightly superficial character at first until you discover that there is more to him both emotionally and intellectually.

Moody is the quiet intellectual one, besotted with Pearl and desperate for more than friendship.

Lexi, is the all American high school teenager a popular grade A student, destined for Yale with a steady boyfriend. Life has always been easy for Lexie, until confronted with a problem that will challenge and make her question her life and those around her.

Lastly is Pearl, delighted to finally have a permanent home and friends. After the chaos  of her nomadic life the Richardson house provides her with the ordered family life she has never experienced.

Ng's handling of all the complexities of the story are brilliant, each revelation, each drama laid out before the reader. I liken it to a present with multiple layers of wrapping, the suspense and drama increasing as each layer is pulled away. You want to savour each layer, but cannot stop yourself reading more quickly.

The custody battle was the perfect tool to show the clear divides in the community, but more importantly what it means to be a mother. What makes a good mother? Just because you abandon your baby as you do not have the financial means to look after your baby does that automatically make you a bad mother?  Can we still be a good mother even if we did  not give birth to the child and how does the differing ways we bring our children affect them in the future? All thought provoking questions that Ng's story poses for the reader.

The small town setting only serves to exaggerate the differences between the families, exposing the narrow mindedness, hypocrisy and racism that never seems to diminish, no matter how hard we try to eradicate it.

When secrets are finally exposed, and the lives of the families are shattered, we learn that no matter what is expected of us or what we suppress, it can all be uprooted. Ng makes us question our emotions, why we do things, why our lives are as they are, what it could have been and what it can be.

Little Fires Everywhere has been huge in America and having read and loved Everything I Never Told You my expectations were high. From the opening page as the Richardson family home burns to the ground I was hooked and if life had not got in the way would have devoured in one sitting.

The writing is truly wonderful, the story utterly and totally compelling.

This is definitely my book of the year.

Thank you To Grace Vincent and Little Brown for a proof copy to read and review.

When I started seeing all the buzz for Little Fires Everywhere I knew I had to read it. It's contemporary fiction which is not normally my everyday read but there's something so delightful about Ng's writing that I seem to be consumed by her work.

Little Fires Everywhere is a masterpiece about families, ones with fathers, ones without, adoption, and the relationships between the members of these families. The Richardson family are long established in Shaker Heights so when Mia Warren, an artist, and her daughter Pearl roll into town, Elena Richardson is only too pleased to be seen to be doing something for a poor, starving artist and rents them her upstairs apartment. Elena has four children, Trip, Lexie, Moody, and Izzy, and has an easygoing relationship with all of them except Izzy. Izzy is her problem child, the one she spends her time being completely exasperated with. But is this because Izzy is the problem child? Or is it because Mrs. Richardson fears she will lose Izzy and finds it easier to push her away?

When Moody strikes up a friendship with Pearl, Elena is secretly pleased that Izzy then seems to take a shine to Mia and in that way that happens with intense friendships, Pearl starts spending most of her time with the Richardsons, and Izzy starts spending time with Mia, wishing that Mia were her mother.

It's these intense relationships that make Celeste Ng's novels. The pace is slow and delicious, an impressive example of a character-driven novel. Nothing much may happen in Little Fires Everywhere but it doesn't need to, you lose yourself entirely in all the character's stories. Both principal and secondary characters have their stories told, all perfectly interwoven, telling the tale of what happened to each and every one of them to get them where they are today. The driving point of the start of the breakdown of these relationships is a court case over custody of a baby, adopted by friends of the Richardson but whose birth mother is a friend of Mia's.

These characters are not perfect, they all have their flaws but they are perfection to read about. By the end of the story they have all been through something and some, if not all, take a long look at both their lives and their behaviour. Apparently, Reece Witherspoon has bought the rights to Little Fires Everywhere and I can see why. I'm not normally a fan of books-to-tv/movie adaptations but I'm looking forward to seeing these characters on the small screen. This is one book that will stay with me for a long time as I loved it even more than Everything I Never Told You, and I am now eagerly waiting to see what comes next for Celeste Ng.

I think I need a minute. I mean, I finished this book a week ago so I think I may be in need of, like, a month or something, purely to get over just how much I loved this book. Like, oh my god.
In Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng ticked every single box that I had - it even ticked some I didn’t realise existed - and for that I feel as though it may officially be my favourite book of 2017. I just think I may have started on the road towards an obsession that I won’t be able to control. I just want more - a TED Talk by Celeste Ng that will allow me even the smallest glimpse into her mind, a sequel, a prequel, a television series (thank you Queen Witherspoon), a museum exhibition, a vacation to Shaker Heights and a re-read… The last of which is definitely going to be imminent.
Honestly, because this book is so amazing, I don’t feel as though anything I say about Little Fires Everywhere will do it justice… I mean, I’ve been really thinking about this review and I just have so many thoughts that putting them down on paper (or on screen) is an incredibly difficult task.
Which is probably why I’m rambling, but anyway -
Little Fires Everywhere’s strengths lie in so many different places: its character-building, its prose, its story. I mean, it literally gets 5-stars from me across the board. And, all of those aspects manage to come together to create a narrative that feels incredibly, universally familiar. Most of us know people like this or are even like this ourselves (I’d like to think of myself as like Izzy but she’s definitely so much more than I will probably ever be); we have gone through similar experiences; or been subjected to the same societal expectations.
Essentially, Little Fires Everywhere is a character-study into the effects of everyday relationships but honestly, it is so much more than that. It creates a world so intrinsically linked in the web-like structure that dominates most small towns, so each action that a character undertakes has a rippling effect on the rest of the community; just like they do in real life. A main part of why this works so effectively in this book is down to character building.
I mean, come on, the character depth alone was enough to make this novel a standout of my entire reading life.
From chapter to chapter, my opinion drastically changed on members of the vast cast as they revealed different facets of their personality and although sometimes, I definitely didn’t agree with the way a particular one was acting, their reasons for behaving so were always incredibly clear. They are just so vividly human and because Celeste Ng thought to include even the little details about their lives and their personalities, I feel as if I know them or that I could head to Shaker Heights and bump into one of them in the street.
Little Fires Everywhere examines huge topics like race, class and gender (in particular, the role of motherhood) and the different expectations and experiences associated with each social group. It really is a marvel at examining what happens what people with different ambitions, ideologies and motives interact with one another - and the parts that each of these divisions between social demographics have to play in small-town life.
Honestly, this book has had such a huge impact on me and I found myself, at so many points in Little Fires Everywhere, torn between who I felt the most empathy or pain for, and who I believed was in the right. I just know that will be one that will stay with me for a long time, and one which I will attempt to push into the hands of the everybody whom I speak to (and I mean, everybody). It is just a book that everyone should read and, whilst they’re all doing that, I am going to pick up Everything I Never Told You in an attempt of sating my new-found Celeste Ng obsession.

I don't know what I was expecting from Little Fires Everywhere, but what I got was a compulsively readable book, filled with fascinating characters on a slow but inexorable dance towards the disastrous start of the book in ways that I couldn't have anticipated, and couldn't wait to see unfold.

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I absolutely loved this book - although when I read the first page I really didn't expect to. I don't generally like books that spoil their own ending as it were, but it turns out there's so much more to this book than the way it starts (or ends). The characterisation is superb, and the plot unexpected in some places, which scream at the character obvious in other parts. Not that I mean it's cliched, more that you can see what's coming before the character does, and you get so invested in them that you want them not to make that bad decision. But they do, and it's still deliciously well written so you keep on going, hoping against hope it will all turn out for the best in the end.

I'm definitely going to track down and read her other book - if it's half as good as this I'm in for a real treat.

In ‘Little Fires Everywhere,’ Celeste Ng has written a subtle but powerful novel with a key theme of families and what lies beneath the surface. Focussing initially on two families, the wealthy and successful Richardson’s have four teenage children with their own individual outlook and issues whilst single mother Mia and her daughter Pearl are constantly running from one place to another without anywhere to call home.

A bond develops between the two families as Mia and Pearl rent an apartment from the Richardson’s whilst Mia does their housekeeping. When a custody battle takes place between a white American couple who are adopting a Chinese baby and the girl’s birth mother, secrets begin to surface as the whole town begin to take sides.

The novel is slow burning but nonetheless engrossing and if you like stories centred on character and relationships then you will enjoy this book.

Brilliant! I loved it - fabulous characters and really makes you think.

Powerful secrets are exposed and tough moral questions are asked in this novel. Issues of race and cultural complexities come to the fore. Family dynamics, in particular mother-daughter relationships, are explored. However the plot twists lack subtlety and are rather implausible. For me the backstory and subplots are a bit heavy-handed and somewhat derail the main narrative.

Okay so honestly I wasn’t a fan of this style of writing at all but I did read it all as the story intrigued me. In my opinion the writing style kind of hindered the flow of the story a little but the themes and story itself were interesting and kept me reading to find out what happened. It was refreshing to have a story where a lot of the characters had both good and not so good sides and to them, more believable and relatable.

Fascinating tale set in shaker town, a community where your house has a deginated colour, the graduation rate is 99%....and of course everyone is perfect, until Mia and her daughter Pearl arrive in town and discover the cracks in the facade

Plenty of themes to consider here, but nothing I haven’t come across before. What makes this novel stand out is the author’s skill in creating credible characters and interesting family dynamics. Varying styles of motherhood underpin the events in this story and these extend to subjects such as abortion, infertility, surrogacy, adoption across race and culture. I enjoyed the various storylines and how the strands were interwoven.

The most striking features of this book for me were the character of Izzy and the effect of parents’ expectations and ambitions on a child. Born prematurely and surviving against the odds, she is suffocated by her controlling mother’s conviction that she is vulnerable and needs to be treated differently from her brothers and sister. Her struggle against this is seen as wilfulness and so begins the downward spiral into alienation from her family.

Much of this echoes Celeste Ng’s first novel ‘Everything I Never Told You’ but I don’t think it quite matches up to it. Influences and motives are spelled out rather too clearly here and the main strength of the first novel for me was the uncertainty of characters’ motivations that continued through to an ambivalent ending. At the end of this book everything is tied up a little neatly for my liking, a couple of turns of events jarred and I was left with a niggling feeling of being cheated. I’d recommend it, though, for fans of family drama of the American variety.

A blast form my teenage past!

The 1990's are perfectly portrayed by Celeste Ng and her characters equally beautifully crafted.

Chapters a cleverly interwoven moving from one character to another, telling the story from their perspective.

Complex but full to the brim with love and respect - a book that will stay with me for some time.

This novel follows a series of interconnected lives, from the assorted families that reside in Shaker Heights. This affluent neighbourhood, with its meticulously designed streets and strict house colour coding, is the very definition of orderly. Seemingly nothing can disturb the idyllic peace that reigns over this neighbourhood and not a thing can ruffle the pleasing sameness of every day and every individual.

But this is exactly what does happen. Behind the plastic smiles and candy-coloured exteriors, the reader bears witness to silent screams and small acts of protest that prove the idyll is a facade for what really occurs here. These small series of little fires ignite, until a shocking betrayal is exposed and the neighbourhood is rocked to its very core.

This could easily have become a very confusing piece. The protagonists alter quickly and both their pasts and presents are explored within this almost endless variety of character insights. These flashbacks help expose the presiding action and proved this a deftly accurate character portrayal as well as a highly addictive plot.

The slow-moving pace and steadily-unfolding story-line drove this to become a character-centred piece where suspense runs high and precedence is placed on the most subtle of movements. I adore this type of tale, and the author perfectly encapsulates what is so entrancing about such a story. This exceeded every expectation and is definitely worthy if its early hype.

Metaphorically speaking, everyone has 'little fires' in their lives - events that begin as a small spark, and have the ability to transform into a raging inferno, changing lives for ever.

Shaker Heights, Cleveland is an idyllic place to live, everything has been planned to create the perfect community, but it's residents are expected to live by its many rules and regulations.

The Richardson's are quintessentially the kind of family who the community of Shaker Heights was built for. Elena Richardson was brought up with these rules, and she and her husband are determined that their four children, Lexie, Trip, Moody and Izzy will live by them too. Izzy isn't exactly a chip off the old block though, and will prove to be very disruptive.

The Richardson's rent out an apartment to people they feel need a helping hand, and their latest tenants are Mia and her daughter Pearl. Mia is a free spirit, an artist specialising in photography, and when Elena’s troublesome daughter Izzy becomes close to Mia, Elena finds that she's jealous of the relationship, a relationship that doesn't exist between her and Izzy. Further to this, an adoption case in the community puts Elena and Mia on opposing sides, and Elena decides to do some digging on Mia’s past, and uproots some secrets that will change everything.

Oh gosh, this book explores so many issues, but for me the one that stood out was motherhood, and in particular, the relationship between mothers and daughters, from baby's early days to teenage angst.

It was beautifully written, with characters so well developed I felt as if I knew them personally. I also liked the setting of Shaker Heights, a place so perfect and orderly, and yet, ultimately there is always someone who will rip up those precious rules and regulations and throw them in the garbage.

Celeste Ng writes with great insight and empathy, and leaves the reader with much to think about.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group for my ARC in exchange for an honest review*

I admit that Little Fires Everywhere wasn’t on my radar at all until I heard so many good things about it from the bookish community that it became a “must-read” for me. I was delighted when I received a copy from Netgalley for review. And as it so often turns out, this little gem of a book easily made it on my favourites list for 2017 – I loved it!

Little Fires Everywhere is a character driven drama set in the ordered suburb of Shaker Heights, where everything is carefully planned and controlled by many rules residents must adhere to. It is obvious from the start that the arrival of a non-conformist person would wreak havoc in the lives of people no longer used to individuality. I had no doubts that artist Mia, with her mysterious past and unconventional lifestyle, would cause some ripples.
I also wasn’t surprised that Mia was a magnet to young Lizzie, who didn’t fit into the Shaker Heights world at all, whilst Pearl felt drawn to the Richardson family, whose lives seemed so ordered and predictable compared to her own. Don’t we always long for the very thing we can’t have? Ng’s characterisations are spot-on, and all her characters literally leap off the page because they seem so real! I found her use of names interesting: Mia was always mentioned by her first name, whilst Elena Richardson was always “Mrs Richardson”, which cleverly created a distance between her character and the reader and reflected her somewhat stand-offish nature.

In Little Fires Everywhere, Ng raises several moral and ethical dilemmas which still haunted me long after finishing the book . For example: is motherhood determined by biology, or by the love and security one can give a child? Should motherhood be determined by wealth, and the ability to provide? Won’t that mean that parenthood becomes a luxury of the rich? I felt myself torn with empathy for each and every character, knowing there would be no solution that would ever suit all involved. Most of all though, I loved and felt for Izzy, and my heart broke for her many times over. I just wanted to hug this child and tell her how great she was!

So whilst Little Fires Everywhere explored several different topics through the eyes of these very different characters, the main theme that stood out for me was motherhood in all its varied forms and guises. Elena Richardson, who is so stunned and confused about her youngest daughter, who just doesn’t fit the mould. Mia, who is much more liberal in her views but has still imposed an exile of sorts on her only child. And Linda McCullough, who wants a baby so badly that she would not hesitate to take it from its own mother.

Ng’s writing is beautiful, her characters multi-dimensional and realistically drawn. The book drew me into its world like only few novels can, and left a ripple of unease and questions in my mind that cannot be easily answered. One of my most memorable reads of the year, and one I cannot recommend strongly enough!

I would have expected to enjoy Little Fires Everywhere more than I actually did. It's well written, the characters are realistically drawn and there's a decent story here, but something just didn’t quite chime with me as it should.

The story itself is a little complex, but this is a book about unaware privilege assuming that its vision of a good life is the only correct one and trying to mould and control everything in the world to conform to that vision, and also about mother-daughter relationships. In brief, an impoverished, artistic, nomadic single mother, Mia, and her daughter Pearl arrive in a comfortable, privileged suburb of Cleveland in 1998 and their lives become entangled with the Richardsons, a long-established, wealthy family there. The friendships and conflicts which ensue throw light on class in the USA and on what a fulfilled life may mean.

Celeste Ng writes very well. Her prose is elegant and very readable, and her characters, especially Mia and Mrs. Richardson, are well drawn and convincing, but I found the book as a whole a little unsatisfactory. I can't quite put my finger on exactly why, but I think it is a combination of small factors: the ground Ng covers is pretty well trodden and I'm not sure that I found any major new insights here, there are some long, rather plodding backstories which dragged somewhat, there is at least one colossal coincidence too many for me, I think Ng tries to do rather too much and to present too many points of view for the story to retain sufficient focus, aspects of the ending didn't ring true to me…and so on. There were quite a lot of things like this "…their beautiful ordered city, where everyone followed the rules and everything had to be beautiful and perfect on the outside, no matter what mess lay within," which were a pleasure to read, but made points which were very, very familiar.

That said, I found it easy to read, and there are some very nice character insights and one or two quite touching moments. This, and the quality of the prose means that I've rounded 3.5-stars up to 4, but although others have found this brilliant, I can only give it a qualified recommendation.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)